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Mondovino - Jonathan Nossiter

Threat advisory: Low - Low risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Across three continents, Mondovino weaves together the family sagas of billionaire Napa Valley power brokers, the rivalry of two aristocratic Florentine dynasties and the fight of three generations of a Burgundian family to preserve their few acres of land. But are all these struggles secondary to a gleefully mischievous pirate from Bordeaux as he spreads the gospel of modernity from Italy to New York to Argentina?

Wine has been a symbol of Western civilisation for thousands of years. Never has the fight for its soul been as desperate. Never has there been so much money - and glory - at stake.

But the battle lines are not what you'd expect: local versus multinational, simple peasants versus powerful captains of industry. In the world of wine, the usual suspects are never where you'd expect.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film documentary wine vintner barrel red grape

Persons of interest

Jonathan Nossiter .... Screenwriter
Jonathan Nossiter .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Mondovino official movie site
Mondovino production notes
Mondovino QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Bangkok International Film Festival 2005: Windows on the World
Cannes Film Festival 2004: In competition
Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2005: Nominated: Worst film
French Film Festival in Australia 2005: Screening
London Film Festival 2004: Documentary Gala

NB: English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages with English language subtitles
See also Sideways
Studios and distributors:

Palace Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Mondovino is flawed in the worst way: it is technically lacking. There is nothing wrong with making a film with a hand-held camera but you budding filmmakers need to remember that your camera does not see the world the way that your brain does. Your brain edits the signals from your eyes so that you receive a smooth, uninterrupted view (eg you don't see the inside of your eyelids when you blink). Thus, movie-makers invented those pesky gadgets called "tripods" and "dollies" to even out the recording. A director of photography must develop a steady hand or their film will be unwatchable. Somewhat like Mondovino.

Then there are the times when the camera operator waves the camera all over the place just because they heard the noise of a car driving past or because someone walked by in the street. All we see is a blur, a fuzzy image, another blur and another fuzzy image. Artistic it might be but watchable it is not. Keep your eye on the ball.

Then there's the fact that the editor kept shots that should have been discarded, like the focussing manoeuvre (zoom into the subject's eyes, set the focus, zoom out to the full view), which occurs ad nauseum throughout the film. An ECU is a good way to draw attention to what the subject is thinking (as opposed to saying) but we aren't given an ECU. We get a focussing manoeuvre. It's distracting and annoying and bad!

Oh, and the subjective critique? Apart from a few wry observations of socio-economic snobs and wine snobs, Mondovino is boring. I gave up and walked out after 110 minutes.

All that I learned from this documentary is that some people make wine and some people sell it. Maybe, somewhere, there are some people who drink it.